http://**/health/ci_22617241/district-attorney-recognizes-prosecutors-and-staffers-exceptional-workSanta Clara County District Attorney recognizes prosecutors and staffers for exceptional workPosted February 19, 2013, Updated February 21, 2013

On Monday prosecutor Ramos was celebrated for his 2012 service to Santa Clara County in an annual awards ceremony hosted by District Attorney Jeff Rosen. ::snipping2::Other winners were:*Trevor Gillis, criminalist. An expert in trace evidence, he spent hundreds of hours collecting and analyzing fibers that played a key role in the arrest of Antolin Garcia Torres for the kidnap and murder of 15-year-old Sierra LaMar. Called "a wizard in maintaining and troubleshooting complex instrumentation," he also searches for evidence of gun residue and drugs, among other items. ::snipping2::

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" Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." - Daniel Moynihan

I never expected that we would hit this milestone: Sierra LaMar has been missing for a year! That means that her family has endured four seasons of not knowing where their beautiful daughter/sister is. Their Saturday morning ritual has become routine. Get up very early, put on your best face, grab a mug of coffee, drive to Morgan Hill and hope that when you turn into the Sierra Search Center yours isn’t the only car in the parking lot. To date those specific fears have not been realized, but that doesn’t mean that there’s not plenty left to be fearful of. Marlene LaMar recently told me that, “It has been a long journey, and the most difficult thing is not having the answers which makes waiting feel infinite. The loss and pain has been indescribable.”

Last year hundreds of strangers came together to look for a teenaged girl who disappeared while walking to the school bus early on a foggy, wet and windy Friday morning. Last Saturday, a community of about fifty friends gathered for Morning Prayer as they have been doing virtually every week for a year. They stood in a circle, heads bowed and hands held as the Lord’s name was invoked and his guidance was sought. It was a touching sight, profound in its determination and its loyalty.

Two-hundred-ninety-eight days ago Antolin Garcia-Torres was arrested on suspicion of kidnapping and murdering Sierra. His DNA was discovered on items that Sierra had with her when she disappeared, and her DNA was found inside his car, but he told the authorities that he had never met the young girl. One-hundred-twenty-one days ago Torres-Garcia was further charged with three separate charges of kidnapping women during the commission of a carjacking. He has yet to enter a plea on any of the charges.

::snipping2::

Torres-Garcia holds the truth that so many desperately want to know, and he turns his back on common decency. Since he invoked his right to be represented by a lawyer, the authorities don’t question him. Because he is so despised by the other inmates at the Santa Clara County Jail, he is held in protective custody. There is nothing like staring your own mortality in the face, so I believe that the prospect of the death penalty might finally bring the truth forward. Nothing else has worked.

::snipping2::

Tomorrow morning the public and media will join Sierra’s family and the search volunteers at the Search Center which is located at 85 Tilton Ave., Morgan Hill. There will be a press conference at 9:00 a.m., followed by a balloon release. Then searchers will be dispatched to look for signs of Sierra. I expect the mood to be as hopeful as the day is beautiful. The trouble is that with this case storm clouds are never far off the horizon.

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I stand with the girl, Natalee Holloway.

"We won't give up on you, Natalee. You didn't give up on us, and we will continue with the investigation until we have all of the answers to your disappearance. God be with you my Natalee!" Dave Holloway ARUBA

"We won't give up on you, Natalee. You didn't give up on us, and we will continue with the investigation until we have all of the answers to your disappearance. God be with you my Natalee!" Dave Holloway ARUBA

MORGAN HILL -- For months, Sierra LaMar's mother couldn't bring herself back to the intersection of Dougherty and Palm. She would break into a sweat, her heart would race, she could barely breathe. This was Sierra's school bus stop, the place the 15-year-old was heading early that foggy March morning when she vanished.

But this week, one year after Sierra's disappearance, Marlene LaMar took a Xanax and a deep breath, then stepped out of her car and walked up to the quiet corner surrounded by farm fields just south of San Jose. Bouquets of dead flowers littered the earth. A weather-beaten poster of Sierra, the smiling cheerleader, clung to a telephone pole.

"I just think about her coming to the bus stop every day never thinking anything like this would ever happen," said LaMar, her eyes welling with tears.

It has been an anguishing year, with tragedy compounded by another heartbreak, vivid dreams of her daughter and a gut-wrenching move from her home that put most of Sierra's belongings, including her Marilyn Monroe posters and zebra-striped bedspread, into storage.

Still, LaMar agreed to pose for a photo here, hoping that someone might see it and remember something, anything, that could help bring her daughter home. Her only solace, if it's possible for a mother who lost her daughter to find any, is at the search center in Morgan Hill, a place that "nurtures my soul," she said, where every Saturday about 40 volunteers still search the culverts and gullies and orchards and fields.

The one who police believe knows Sierra's whereabouts isn't talking. Prosecutors and sheriff's investigators say Antolin Garcia Torres, a 21-year-old stranger who worked odd jobs and lived just seven miles away in Morgan Hill, abducted and killed her. They have found no body, no blood. But her clothes, purse and cellphone were discovered days later tossed into two fields nearby. Garcia Torres' DNA was found on her clothing, authorities say, and her DNA was found in his Volkswagen Jetta.

After the DNA match, sheriff's deputies followed Garcia Torres for weeks, hoping he would lead them to Sierra's body. During interviews after his arrest, he did not confess.

"He was not going to tell us," Sheriff Laurie Smith said in an interview this week. "We used every technique that was legal."

Missing for a year

The case of the teenager with the long, dark hair and beautiful smile drew national attention after she disappeared March 16, 2012. About 750 volunteers showed up the first week to help search, including former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Alex Smith. It was the kind of crime that is so vile, so repugnant, that Garcia Torres is kept in protective custody at the Santa Clara County Jail, away from inmates who don't treat child-killing suspects kindly.

Maybe if Garcia Torres was thrown into the general jail population, "that would bring answers very quickly," said Marc Klaas, who has been a key part of the search for Sierra and whose daughter, Polly, was kidnapped and killed nearly 20 years ago.

"How cruel," Klaas said. "On top of everything else he's done, he allows the family to sit out there with these great unanswered questions."

Threatening the death penalty might serve as a powerful motivator as well, Klaas said. The District Attorney's Office, however, has yet to decide on that. Prosecutors still are going through mountains of evidence and investigative reports. A message left with Traci Owens, Garcia Torres's defense lawyer, wasn't returned this week. The suspect has yet to enter a plea on the murder charge. His next hearing is scheduled for 9 a.m. April 4.

Another heartbreak

In the meantime, Marlene LaMar is trying desperately to hold on to threads of hope. She had already been divorced from Sierra's father, who joins the searches on weekends. Her older daughter, Danielle, who is studying at Sacramento State, struggles with nightmares of what might have happened to her sister. And months after Sierra vanished, LaMar and her boyfriend split up. They had shared a home with Sierra around the corner from the bus stop.

"I felt abandoned, really abandoned," she said. "He was a major support system, in addition to my family. It was a very difficult period. It's still difficult. There's still healing."

They had only recently moved from Fremont to the rural area near Morgan Hill so Sierra could go to a better high school, LaMar said. That day started typically, as LaMar left early for her job as an occupational therapist in Fremont. Sierra was awake and getting ready for school when her mother left. When LaMar came home that afternoon, the house was dark, and Sierra, whom LaMar expected to find making a snack, was nowhere to be found. A frantic search began. Sheriff's deputies swarmed the neighborhood. Her belongings were found in the fields within days, the DNA was matched within weeks, and by May, just two months later, Garcia Torres was under arrest.

Since then, LaMar said she feels like the legal case has been stagnant. Ten months after Garcia Torres' arrest, no plea has been entered.

"Once the proceedings start, then I feel that maybe he will open up," she said, and they can find her daughter. "I don't feel it's productive to have a delay like this. I feel that the victims have been put thoroughly on hold."

Grief's powerful grip

Deputy district attorney David Boyd understands LaMar's frustration. But this phase of the process especially, he said, "is designed almost exclusively to honor the constitutional rights of the defendant, and that's very difficult for anyone who has had a family member taken away."

::snipping2::

Now, LaMar keeps Sierra's cheerleading bag in her car, just where Sierra left it. Once in a while she pulls out a sock and breathes in her daughter's scent. Last month, she found a Disney key chain between the car seats, a gift from Sierra that said, "I (heart) mom."

Sometimes, LaMar dreams that Sierra is home, that they walk together through the old school cafeteria that has been transformed into the search center.

In the dream, Sierra is too traumatized to speak. But she's listening as her mother points out the hand-drawn posters and letters taped to the walls, and to the box of bracelets and pendants that people have made for Sierra, for the day she might return.

"We're so anxious to show the love that's all over the walls, you can just feel it," LaMar said of her dream. "It seems so real."

Marlene LaMar, mother of missing teen Sierra LaMar, grasps a keychain in San Jose on March 13, 2013. This keychain was given to her by Sierra before she disappeared. Marlene was heartbroken when she misplaced the keychain, but she recently found it. Antolin Garcia Torres has been charged with the murder of Sierra. Her body has not been found. (Gary Reyes/Staff)

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I stand with the girl, Natalee Holloway.

"We won't give up on you, Natalee. You didn't give up on us, and we will continue with the investigation until we have all of the answers to your disappearance. God be with you my Natalee!" Dave Holloway ARUBA

::snipping2::"I can't understand how the legal system would let this happen to a victim's family for so long," Marlene LaMar said early Friday morning.

One attorney, Steven Clark, explained that the legal system, especially for homicides takes a long time. Clark said the delay in prosecution could actually play to the prosecution's advantage.

“Finding the body is very critical to the case..Time is on the side of the prosecution to make the case stronger," Clark said.

Clark said it is still consider a very active investigation. Every time there is a new tip or there is a new search, then that information has to be transmitted to the defense, Clark said, which is just one reason why it seems like the case is taking so long.

To remember their daughter's actual one-year anniversary on Saturday, the crew of volunteers who still continue to search for Sierra are holding two events: A balloon release in Morgan Hill at 9 a.m. and a fundraiser in Fremont beginning at 1 p.m. For more details, click on findsierralamar.com.

Her parents, along with a committed group of friends and volunteers, hope to raise money and awareness to prevent more child abductions and continue search efforts until Sierra's whereabouts are known.

SANTA CLARA (CBS SF) — A Santa Clara County Superior Court judge Thursday again postponed a plea hearing for the defendant in the Sierra LaMar kidnapping and murder case after the defense said it could not access some digital copies of evidence.

Judge Sharon Chatman rescheduled the hearing for April 18 so the defense counsel for Antolin Garcia Torres could review all evidence provided on compact discs by investigators, Deputy District Attorney David Boyd said ::snipping2::

SANTA CLARA (CBS SF) — A Santa Clara County Superior Court judge Thursday again postponed a plea hearing for the defendant in the Sierra LaMar kidnapping and murder case after the defense said it could not access some digital copies of evidence.

Judge Sharon Chatman rescheduled the hearing for April 18 so the defense counsel for Antolin Garcia Torres could review all evidence provided on compact discs by investigators, Deputy District Attorney David Boyd said ::snipping2::

SAN JOSE -- Two dozen supporters of missing Morgan Hill area teen Sierra LaMar walked out of court Thursday with feelings of frustration after the man suspected of killing her did not enter a plea.

Antolin Garcia Torres, who is facing charges of murdering Sierra with the special circumstance of kidnapping, was expected to enter a plea on Thursday. Instead, his attorneys from the Alternate Defender Office successful requested the plea hearing be continued to next month.

Clean shaven with his hair slicked back, the 22-year-old Garcia Torres made his first court appearance since December and was dressed in a brown suit, white shirt and brown tie, contrasting with the jail clothing he had worn in his previous court appearances.

A number of the Sierra supporters who have been regularly attending Garcia Torres' court appearances were expecting to see him enter a plea. Instead, they listened as Traci Owens of the county's Alternate Defender Office argue that the defense has not received all of the discovery.During the hearing, Owens said prosecutor David Boyd provided the defense with video surveillance, but the alternate defender office does not have software to view the footage. Because of that issue and some other outstanding discovery, including lab work, Judge Sharon Chatman granted request that the plea hearing to be moved to June 27.

"We won't give up on you, Natalee. You didn't give up on us, and we will continue with the investigation until we have all of the answers to your disappearance. God be with you my Natalee!" Dave Holloway ARUBA

A plea entry for the man accused of kidnapping and murdering Sierra LaMar was postponed yet again in Santa Clara County Superior Court this morning.

Judge Sharon Chatman scheduled a new plea hearing for Antolin Garcia Torres for July 23 after his lawyer said prosecutors had not turned over required information to the defense.

Chatman had previously postponed the case on April 4 after defense attorneys complained that compact discs they had been given that contained evidence prosecutors planned to present in the case were defective.

The judge had rescheduled the hearing for April 18 but it was continued again until May 16, and then reset once again to today.

Garcia Torres, 21, who showed up in court in a business suit this morning, still has not entered a plea in the case.

Prosecutors have charged him with kidnapping and murdering Sierra LaMar, 15, who was last seen at her home outside Morgan Hill before she left for school on March 16, 2012.

Sierra Lamar Evidence Still under InvestigationMurder and kidnap case's delayed once again, next hearing set for Aug. 22.July 24, 2013 at 09:32 am

The Sierra LaMar murder and kidnap case was delayed in a San Jose courtroom Tuesday to next month as prosecutors sift through evidence still coming in from law enforcement agencies, a prosecutor said.

Santa Clara County Judge Sharon Chatman set a new hearing for Aug. 22 to review the status of evidence sent by the district attorney's office to lawyers for murder defendant Antolin Garcia Torres. Garcia Torres, 21, was charged back on May 31, 2012, with murder and kidnapping with special circumstances after the 15-year-old Sierra vanished outside her home near Morgan Hill on March 16, 2012.

"We continue to turn over discovery," Walsh said. "We have not yet completed the process."

Garcia Torres, dressed in a light brown suit and occasionally peering at the courtroom audience, listened as his attorneys, who seemed to anticipate the postponement, agreed on the hearing date.

Outside of court, Walsh said the prosecution is still receiving information about the case from the district attorney's crime laboratory, the FBI and the sheriff's office.

Garcia Torres has yet to enter a plea in the murder-kidnap case more than a year after being charged.

Prosecutors have combined the charges with other allegations, filed in November, that Garcia Torres assaulted three women on March 19 and March 26, 2012, in Safeway parking lots in Morgan Hill, Walsh said.

"It's a complicated case and there is just a voluminous amount of discovery that is generated in a case of this nature," Walsh said.

The sheriff's office is also following up on leads and searches for clues about the missing teen, he said.

Antolin Garcia Torres, the Morgan Hill man accused of kidnapping and killing Sierra LaMar, declined to enter a plea yet again Thursday at the Hall of Justice in San Jose today, as the attorneys involved in the case have yet to complete the evidence sharing process

The hearing for Garcia Torres, 22, was continued to Oct. 3 at the San Jose courthouse. .Garcia Torres is charged with murder, with a special circumstance of kidnapping. He appeared in court Thursday wearing a brown suit, white buttoned-down shirt and brown patterned tie. He smiled and laughed while chatting with his attorneys as they sat in the front of the courtroom waiting for the judge to enter.

Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney Brian Welch, sitting in for Deputy DA David Boyd on the case, said prosecutors have only recently received what he thinks is the last of Sheriff’s evidence related to the case. He said he will be able to hand over the remainder of the evidence to Garcia Torres within the next couple of weeks.

Garcia Torres’ attorney, Traci Owens of the County’s Alternate Defender’s Office, said the defendant has “not had full disclosure for as long as we’d like to,” and the Court cannot ensure Garcia Torres’ constitutional right to due process without such disclosure.

Outside the courtroom after the hearing, Welch stopped to answer questions from about five volunteers, including Arocha, who attended the proceeding. He said due to the complexity and gravity of the case, the proceedings for Garcia Torres are almost certain to continue into next year without a conclusion.

Welch added that it is “typical” in similar cases for plea hearings and evidence sharing to last as long as it has in the Garcia Torres case.Volunteers and the KlaasKids Foundation continue to organize search efforts every Saturday. The searches start at 10 a.m. at Central High School, 17960 Monterey Road. For more information, go to www.findsierralamar.com.